A tipsy debate about little green men

A Friday night miles away with friends after a very difficult week mightn’t be the best setting to debate the existence of extraterrestrials – you know ET’s, little green men, etc. But it’s exactly where the often giggly and tipsy conversation went.

Here’s me saying we are alone. Despite the size and age of the universe, we are still all alone. There are no extraterrestrials. You can imagine the criticism one will receive with such a single minded, non-compromising and egocentric belief.

I wanted to write this up with a slightly clearer head. Here goes…

There are two parts to this. The first: is it possible that there are others out their in the vast universe (or multiverse) and secondly, if there are others out there can we find them, communicate with them, etc…

First movement

I for one believe we are alone. More so, everything about the universe, the laws of nature, the constants, the parameters we “discover” take on values that are consistent with conditions supporting a conscious mind. Many will see this as the anthropic principle. I probably would go on to insist on the strong form of the anthropic principle, the universe (and hence the fundamental parameters on which it depends) must be such as to admit the creation of observers within it at some stage.

Second movement

If there are others out there will we find them? Will they find us? Again I think not. This is a little like the idea of a man searching diligently under lamp-post at night. The man explains to a passer-by that he has lost his keys. “Did you lose them under the lamp-post?” “No.” “Then why are you looking under the lamp-post?” “Because there’s no light anywhere else.”

The search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI) is running a long-term program that searches through radio telescope data for signals that could have been produced by extra-terrestrial intelligent sources. SETI is the collective name for a number of activities people are undertaking to search for intelligent extraterrestrial life. Some of the most well known projects are run by Harvard University, the University of California, Berkeley and the SETI Institute.

Suffice to say SETI hasn’t heard a boo from whoever and whatever is out there for 50 years. The problem is the assumption that alien beings will be something like us. Biologist J. B. S. Haldane, remarked “the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.”

To search for radio signals, sent intentionally or not, from what may be a very advanced civilization is a little wacky because even our own radio output is already beginning to fade. Radio signals are outdated technology, nearly as sun-bleached as an old issue of Playboy magazine. And because even a nearby alien civilization would probably be some 1,000 light-years away, conversation is just about impossible. Even if this distant civilization could spy on us, here’s what they’d see right now: Earth about 1010, long before the Industrial Revolution.